1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to drill chucks for use with hand drills or with electric or pneumatic power drivers. More particularly, it relates to a chuck of the keyless type which may be tightened or loosened by hand or by actuation of the driver motor.
2. Prior Art
Both hand and electric or pneumatic tool drivers are well known. Although twist drills are the most common tools used with such drivers, the tools may also comprise screw drivers, nut drivers, burrs, mounted grinding stones and other cutting or abrading tools. Since the tools may have shanks of varying diameter or the cross-section of the tool shank may be polygonal, the device is usually provided with a chuck which is adjustable over a relatively wide range. The chuck may be attached to the driver by a threaded or tapered bore.
A wide variety of chucks has been developed by the art. In the simplest form of chuck, three jaws spaced circumferentially 120xc2x0 apart from each other are constrained by a conical body threaded onto the drive shaft so that rotation of the body in one direction relative to the drive shaft forces the jaws into gripping relationship with respect to the cylindrical shank of a tool while rotation in the opposite direction releases the gripping relationship. Such a chuck may be keyless if the body is rotated by hand. However, because the tightening or loosening torque which may be applied directly in a hand operation is limited, the art developed the so-called three-jaw geared chuck. This design overcomes the principal problems in the earlier design by providing guideways in the chuck body to control more accurately the motion of the jaws and teeth on the jaws which mesh with a gear driven nut mounted on the chuck body. The gear is actuated by a pinion formed on a separate key which may be rotated in a bearing hole formed in the chuck body.
The three-jaw geared chuck is, or can be, a high quality precision tool which can exert a relatively large gripping force on the tool. However, the separate key may easily be misplaced or accidentally left in the chuck when the driver is actuated, thus possibly leading to some personal injury. In addition, the chucking or unchucking operation is a two-handed procedure which is time consuming.
To overcome these perceived disadvantages of the key operated gear chuck, various keyless chucks have now been developed. Such keyless chucks fall broadly into two classes: impact and non-impact chucks. Impact chucks employ means to apply a series of impacts to the nut so as to tighten or loosen the jaws. In the non-impact design, manual or mechanical means are used to restrain one member of the chuck while a torque is applied to another member of the chuck either manually or by the power driver to move the nut relative to the jaws. A keyless chuck of the impact type is disclosed in McCarthy U.S. Pat. No. 4,840,387 while the prior art cited therein illustrates keyless chucks both of the impact and the non-impact variety.
In accordance with the present invention, a keyless chuck of the non-impact type is provided. The invention employs an anti-friction bearing interposed between the nut and the body to decrease the friction losses in the mechanism so as to increase the effective tightening torque. The bearing thrust ring is formed separately from the body member and pressed thereon so as to increase the effective diameter of the body while minimizing the machining requirements. The principal load-bearing parts of the chuck, i.e., the jaws, body, nut, bearing and bearing race are formed from metal while the front and back sleeves and related parts may be formed from plastic materials so as to reduce the cost and permit customizing of the chuck. Additional features of the invention include an elastomeric grip boot for the front sleeve which also functions as a bit holder and centering device, a one-way torque limiting clutch for limiting the tightening torque while permitting positive loosening torque, and a torque-limiting clutch which provides greater loosening torque than tightening torque. In accordance with a process feature of the invention, the three jaws are identical with respect to their nut engaging threads and the eccentricity of their engagement is overcome by a grinding procedure following assembly of the chuck.